Inside the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris’ In Situ Mediation Strategy.

For the second edition of our series SPOTLIGHT, where we meet with professionals from the sector and discuss the goals and challenges of their institutions, we’ve caught up with Annabelle Constant, director of cultural and educational experiences at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

After multiple months of vision and development, the new mobile app for the MAM was unveiled during the museum’s inauguration in October 2019. Mrs Constant shares her experience and future strategy with smArtapps.

SmArtapps: Before a mobile app was available, what were other mediation tools that the museum used?

AC: We’ve always used informational texts both in English and in French to guide the visitor through the museum’s multiple collections. We’ve also showcased videos of different artists, whether to present their work or show them working in their ateliers, we’ve also done interviews with them that were available from beginning to end of the tour. Audioguides were also used with commentaries and audio descriptions for temporary exhibitions.

The museum also printed a map that was distributed to visitors at the entrance so that they can easily manage to locate their points of interests on different levels and in different spaces of the building. We’ve integrated collections titles and descriptions on those maps.

For certain temporary exhibitions, we’ve distributed audioguides and video guides, especially for modern art exhibitions such as Sonia Delaunay, Albert Marquet, Bernard Buffet, Zao Wou-Ki, Derain Balthus Giacometti). We’ve even had mobile apps focused on commentaries by the artist or curator or even other writers who knew the artists well enough, such as David Altmejd, Andy Warhol, Carl Andre, Paula Moderson-Becker.

Of course, none of the mediation tools would be effective without the constant work of our mediation team through guided tours and information sharing.

Why did you invest in a mobile app after the inauguration? What has changed since?

For the museum’s reopening and the reorganization of our permanent collections, it seemed quite obvious to allow the biggest number of visitors to access content easily, and so the idea of a free mobile app came up, an app that can be easily downloaded on personal smartphones, this way the visitors are also more autonomous in their experience.

We’ve also chosen to create separate tours for different interests, so the app offers short and long tours depending on how interested the user is. We’ve also created a tour for families that is suited for all members of the family. Another tour has been dedicated to early tweens (ages 11 through 14) that allow them to be more independent in their visit. We’ll soon launch a new tour for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. So as you can see, there are so many different ways to go about the collection and exhibitions, we’ve never been able to include as many diverse visitors from all ages and walks of life and education, which is quite great.

It allows the public to feel accompanied all while having their own autonomy. For foreigners, we’ve added an English version of the app so that they don’t feel lost, which is often the case when visiting a museum abroad.

We’re also very happy that this project has come to life thanks to Terry de Gunzburg, founder of By Terry, sponsor of the application. She found the concept to be necessary to allow easier access and include all types of visitors.

How did you choose and go about priorities within this digital project?

It all begins with the agenda and the space’s organization. We’ve worked extensively with the conservation teams and the digital teams at Paris Musées before we created the content around our collections, with text oralisation and acting. Within the MAM’s collections, we have masterpieces that must be put forward and enjoyed. So we’ve prioritized content around that art, even the speech is well thought-of for these pieces, it’s been a long constant collaboration with our conservation team, as well as digital teams at Paris Musées (MAM’s official parent organization). All the content has been thoroughly developed, we’ve worked with actors for voice-overs, teenage therapist to draft a specific tour for 11–14 year olds and our own visitors team with the right knowledge to create family-friendly content.

What’s the next steps in terms of communications? How are visitors aware of the new mobile app?

The app is referenced on app stores, both on Apple and Android devices. It’s also mentioned on all our paper pamphlets at the entrance, as well as on our dynamic screens around the halls. We’ve also dedicated a web page on our website. We’ve also trained our ticketing agents, security agents as well as our guides to encourage visitors to download the app on their smartphones. We’ll soon add tablets at our information booths to present the app, but we’re also constantly trying to find ways to promote new mediation tools, such as the app.